The tower vibrates, as the giant black cube begins to crack even more..

Tayla’s subsystem returns abruptly, with a cryptic message and timer.

[ Let us forget once again

In the disappearing stars

- 54 seconds remaining - ]

Tayla’s sadness begins to gain the upperhand.

Every soldier braces for impact.

Toska takes one look towards its partner in crime. Her sadness is highlighted by her expression. The last 48 hours must have been a handful. How would a killing machine be able to process those emotions and empathise is strange. After all, it is but a jumble of scrap metal.

[ Let us forget once again

In the disappearing stars

- 47 seconds remaining - ]

They all look like they are starring at the end of the world. The super soldiers have stopped shooting at everyone, letting those unaffected run away. After a few more seconds, a portal appears behind Toska. The robot takes a good look at the portal, before understanding it’s the machine’s time to come back to its master.

“Tayla”. It shouts to the woman, breaking her melancholic contemplation.

“We shall see each other again”. The robot waves at her. Such a terrifying monster waving it’s hand at her like a cartoon character. Tayla can’t help but giggle.

“Right… See you on the other side, Toska”, let’s out Tayla, in a mocking tone. The robot then leaves through its designated portal.

[ Let us forget once again

In the disappearing stars

- 33 seconds remaining - ]

Tayla looks at the cube, which begins to tremble with the tower, as its light penetrates the structure housing it. The cube is about to burst. A light is about to be kindled soon. Tayla breathes in and out. Her face speaks of bittersweetness. Time passes by.

In those thirty seconds, she has enough time to think about her employees. What is Alex doing at this moment? Will Geneviève be able to make ends meet to help pay for her mom’s surgery. She’s wondering if Clark is okay. He better not be thinking of flirting with that woman. That would be another mess to handle on top of everything she has to deal with.

[ Let us forget once again

In the disappearing stars

- 12 seconds remaining - ]

In the alleyway where Athomas Killian was killed, a hooded figure, incognito in his persona, walks amongst the shadows. He stares at everyone too preoccupied by the sight of the cube, a strange tribal totem about the same height behind him.

He sees Athomas Killian’s USB and grins before taking it. It survived the death machine’s burning flames, covered in dried-up blood that did not disappear.

“Well well, seems the gods are on your side… This is going to be interesting.”

The hooded figure then vanishes with its Totem, as if he was never in Atmos to begin with.

[ Let us forget once again

In the disappearing stars

- 3 seconds remaining - ]

[ 2 seconds remaining ]

[ 1 seconds remaining ]

Then, the subsystem screen changes dramatically, a corruption effect with a bunch of markings of an error message displayed before returning to the screen of sickening light.

[ Memory Devourer - Clean Slate : Are you sure you want to proceed? 70% chance of critical damage to { sleep } + 6.75% chance of critical damage to { brain function } ]

Despite the bittersweet nature of her feelings, Tayla smirk, seemingly a betting woman.

“Clean slate”, she simply states.

[ Memory Devourer - Clean Slate : Enabled ]

In an instant, the cube explodes in a flash of light, blinding everyone for a few seconds. 

The stream of light spread across not just Troposville, but the entire country. From a distance, this all looks like a bomb was set off in Atmos. Yet, there are no damages to any infrastructure in place. No buildings or objects are affected by { Clean Slate }.

Rather, it’s the people…

May 23rd - 11 h 18 PM